BofA Profit Misses Estimates on Dealmaking Slump, Energy Loans

Hugh Son | Apr 14, 2016

(Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. posted a first-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates as trading and underwriting revenue dropped and energy loans soured. The stock fell in early trading in New York.

Net income at the second-biggest U.S. bank fell 13 percent to $2.68 billion, or 21 cents a share, from $3.1 billion, or 25 cents, a year earlier, according to a statement Thursday from the Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm. Adjusted earnings per share were 20 cents, 1 cent less than the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan, 56, spent the first half-decade of his tenure wrestling with legal costs tied to his predecessor’s acquisitions of Countrywide Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch & Co. His attempt to bolster revenue has been hamstrung by low interest rates and rising costs from soured energy loans.

“In quarters like this, revenue is going to be challenged,” Chief Financial Officer Paul Donofrio said in a conference call with journalists. “Markets were volatile, and long-term interest rates declined significantly.”

Bank of America shares fell 6 cents to $13.73 at 7:54 a.m. in New York. The stock declined 18 percent this year through Wednesday, the worst performance in the 24-company KBW Bank Index.

The global-banking division posted a 22 percent profit decline to $1.07 billion, on a similar drop in investment-banking fees. That compares with analysts’ $1.3 billion estimate.

Consumer-banking profit climbed 22 percent to $1.8 billion as expenses fell. Profit at the wealth-management division, which includes the Merrill Lynch brokerage, rose 13 percent to $740 million as lower expenses more than offset a decline in revenue.JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, posted first-quarter profit on Wednesday that beat Wall Street estimates as the firm slashed bankers’ pay and reported a decline in trading revenue that was less than most analysts predicted.

Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo were among the U.S. banks that learned Wednesday they failed a key regulatory requirement aimed at avoiding another financial crisis: proving they could go bankrupt without disrupting the financial system. The lenders have until Oct. 1 to rewrite their so-called living wills, with the added incentive that another failure would give the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. power to subject them to more capital or liquidity constraints.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hugh Son in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at [email protected] Dan Kraut